MS accounts & user a/c names

biker66 · 22 Oct 2017

i have a registered Windows 10 installed on my 1st hard drive but after Windows Update screwed it up i am doing a clean install onto a 2nd hard drive. but upon install after entering my license key it then prompted me for a user account name and password. I don't have one so i thought of one.. When i installed Windows 10 initially onto my 1st drive i had to enter an email address and password. both Windows installations are activated. My question is, why am i being asked to give a user name and not my microsoft email account on the install to the 2nd drive? Is my Windows license now linked in with my email address? If i ever do a clean install on my 1st drive will i be prompted for a user name and password again? if so i can use a different one? will i ever me prompted for an email address again?

Caledon Ken · 22 Oct 2017

Hi biker66

When you install Windows clean you can either set it up with a Microsoft account or a local account. You just have to watch the panels and questions. They don't make it obvious as they want you to have an account. Beside having at as account means you can resolve most passwords issue online. If you use a local account I recommend you create a second admin account just to have "A second set of keys to the car"

The Microsoft account can be your Office 365 account or an established Outlook.com email account (or hotmail, or msn or Live). Now you can also create a Microsoft account using some other email address like xxxxxx@gmail.com but this is a Microsoft account using a gmail user name. As I understand you have to Link your Microsoft account to digital license. See this tutorial.

Activate Windows 10

MS has, what I call, fingerprinted your machine. If you re-install on the same machine with really no hardware changes you do not need to enter the license when it asks, just skip. Windows will activate based on you hardware.

Ken

Tony K · 22 Oct 2017

biker66 said:

i have a registered Windows 10 installed on my 1st hard drive but after Windows Update screwed it up i am doing a clean install onto a 2nd hard drive. but upon install after entering my license key it then prompted me for a user account name and password. I don't have one so i thought of one.. When i installed Windows 10 initially onto my 1st drive i had to enter an email address and password. both Windows installations are activated. My question is, why am i being asked to give a user name and not my microsoft email account on the install to the 2nd drive? Is my Windows license now linked in with my email address? If i ever do a clean install on my 1st drive will i be prompted for a user name and password again? if so i can use a different one? will i ever me prompted for an email address again?

Hi there.

Is "made up one" meaning you used the option to create one while installing? If so, you could have and you can use your MS account (MSA) to sign into multiple devices. I have 6 that I do.

BTW, your OS would've activated whether it was a local or MSA, for as Ken stated it has Digital License that is stored on the activation server along with a hardware hash (fingerprint) of your machine.